All the Devils' hottest news, from notes to numbers to neutral-zone traps

Monday, January 14, 2013

Devils coach Pete DeBoer and general manager Lou Lamoriello said they held center Jacob Josefson out of practice today as a precaution, but he will likely be back on the ice Tuesday.

Josefson has been nursing a lower-body injury (believed to be a sore knee) that kept him out of his final two games with Albany before he was recalled on Sunday after the NHL lockout officially ended.

“I expect he will probably be on the ice tomorrow,” DeBoer said.

The Devils know they can play it safe with Josefson this week because he has been playing in Albany all season and doesn’t need to worry about getting in game shape before Saturday’s opener against the Islanders at Nassau Coliseum.

DeBoer said he has no doubt Josefson will be able to play Saturday.

“He probably could have (skated today), but no sense rushing it right now,” DeBoer said. “He’s a guy that’s been playing all year, so we’re just being a little safe.”

***As a rookie in 2011-12, defenseman Adam Larsson spent the entire season in the NHL, learning the ropes and putting up two goals and 16 assists in 65 regular season games. Although the NHL was locked out until Sunday, Larsson was able to continue his development playing with Albany in the AHL. The 20-year-old defenseman had four goals (two on the power play) and 15 assists with 24 penalty minutes and a minus-1 defensive rating in 33 games with Albany.

Larsson believes he gained “a lot” playing regularly and playing a lot of minutes in all situations for Albany.

“I’ve been stronger, I’ve been faster,” he said. “It’s a different type of play down there. There’s not a lot of system and it can be hard some games. You never know. You can get three guys on you. That’s probably the biggest difference compared to here and I think that’s a good experience to have. It’s been very helpful for me. It’s been fun

Larsson, who was drafted fourth overall by the Devils in 2011, said the play is a lot more structured in the NHL. In the AHL, with younger players, he faced a lot more of players straying from the system.

“Here in the NHL, every guy does exactly what the system tells them to do,” Larsson said. “Guys down there it’s more like 100 percent hockey, skating hard and working hard. It’s a great league, that’s for sure.”

DeBoer said Sunday and he and the staff watched video of all of Albany’s games up to Christmas. Although Larsson had some ups and downs in the AHL, DeBoer believes he benefitted from playing there.

“I thought it was a really good experience for him,” DeBoer said. “I have no doubt he’s improved by playing down there. He’s still a young guy. I saw some really good games and then some average to below average games. There was a little bit of inconsistency there, but I thought overall it was a great experience for him.”

Larsson agreed that it was great experience, but he’s happy the lockout is over.

“It’s been a fun year,” he said. “But, it’s here you want to be.”

***Although some teams open the 48-game season with three games in four days, the Devils get to ease into their schedule with their first three games spread over seven days and no back-to-back situations until Feb. 2 (at Pittsburgh) and Feb. 3 (at Islanders).

“It might help,” DeBoer said of the lighter schedule early. “You pay the bill for that later. We’re obviously going to get jammed somewhere else (in the schedule) because of that. I think it’s a good situation for us. The more teaching days we can have right now, I think, the better from the coaching perspective.”

***With Larry Robinson (assistant in San Jose) and Adam Oates (head coach in Washington) leaving the coaching staff from last season and being replaced by Scott Stevens and Matt Shaw (formerly of San Jose), DeBoer has some new personalities to work with, but said the adjustment has been “pretty seamless.”

“Four months of sitting there staring at each other waiting for a game to play, we’ve gotten pretty familiar with each other, so there’s no adjustment,” DeBoer said.

***

Other subjects DeBoer discussed today:

On doing some 5-on-5 scrimmage work during practice to try to simulate game pace:

“You can’t mimic that in the drills you do, I guess, the unpredictable nature of 5-on-5 hockey. When you’re doing drills it’s organized and the guys have to get used to the unpredictable part of the play and the contact and the line changes, so that’s something we’ve tried to do every day.”

On needing other guys to step up to fill goal void created by loss of Zach Parise and Petr Sykora:

“There’s no doubt when you lose some of the players we’ve lost other guys have to fill those holes. You’re not replacing Zach Parise with one guy. It’s got to be by committee. But we sat here last year at the beginning of the season and no one thought Adam Henrique would be able to do what he did and he came in and did that. So, we’re going to need some of those type of guys to step up…

“That slack has got to be picked up by everybody. The guys that had career years last years – the (David) Clarksons and those guys – are going to have to do the same thing and some other guys are going to have to find another level for us.”

On whether Josefson or Mattias Tedenby can help in that area:

“We’ll see. Those are the questions that we’re at camp here to find out. We’re hoping that one of those guys is another Adam Henrique from last year.”

On the depth the Devils have on defense and tough decisions to make on the top six:

“Happy to have the depth, but if we’re healthy there’s competition nightly to play. In my mind, we have eight NHL defensemen here and you only dress six.”

On number of starts he has in mind for Martin Brodeur to start this season:

“I haven’t put a number on it. That’s just going to go by feel. Obviously, he likes to play game. I also think with the number of games we’re going to be playing in a short amount of time that we’re going to need both guys and that’s something that’s going to be a moving target as we go through the season.”

On whether he’d split the back-to-back games (10 sets) between Brodeur and Johan Hedberg like he did last season (except for once):

“That will be a feel (decision), but I thought it worked well last year.”

On Brodeur’s value on the ice:

“The guys know the pedigree of what he’s done, the way he handles the puck and relieves pressure for us, it’s invaluable and a lot of our systems are based around his abilities.”

On if Brodeur’s game is still at the same high level:

“Yeah, he looks like it. He’s in good shape. He’s an amazing athlete. He’s the most enthusiastic guy on the ice at 40, going on 41 years old (on May 6) and that many years in the league and that’s contagious for our group.”

On how a player can make an impression during training camp without preseason games:

“We’re going to scrimmage here (Wednesday). I think part of it is going to be on track record. We know these guys coming in. We’ve watched them wherever they’ve been playing. For a guy like (Mathieu) Darche, who’s on a tryout, you’re obviously paying a little more attention to him. It’s not the perfect situation – both for those guys as players to try and separate themselves and for us to try and make those decisions. But it’s something we’ve got to get to.”

About

TOM GULITTI has covered the New Jersey Devils for The Record since 2002. Prior to that, he covered the New York Rangers for four years. Gulitti joined The Record in 1998 after six years at The North Jersey Herald News. He graduated from Binghamton University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric-Literature.